Workforce Management

In response to public concern that wages at the low end of the pay scale were slow to rise, particularly for store managers and assistant store managers, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) updated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulations defining which white collar workers must be paid overtime pay.     The DOL estimates that more than 4 million employees nationwide who are not currently paid overtime will now have to be paid overtime, and the majority of those will be employees of retail stores and restaurants. 

The Bon-Ton Stores is getting its holiday team in place.   The department store chain is eyeing 13,000 new associates to service customers across all store locations during the busy holiday season. Another 500 associates will fill positions across all of Bon-Ton Stores’ distribution centers and its e-commerce fulfillment center.  

The key to success is customer satisfaction. By arming itself with a fleet of “great personnel,” The Container Store is always ready to deliver top-notch store-level service. This message was delivered during “Doing Well by Doing Good — How to Build Trust and Win the Modern Customer,” a topic discussed yesterday at “Retail’s Digital Summit 2016.” The event, sponsored by Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation, was held in Dallas.

Chain Store Age will present a webinar on workplace violence — and how to create an emergency response plan to deal with violent incidents — on Thursday, Sept. 29, at 2 p.m. – 3 p.m. (EDT).   The webinar, sponsored by Center for Applied Learning at American Public University System, will present an overview of the different types of workplace violence, best practices for conducting “active shooter” response training for employees and recognizing signs of potential workplace violence and more.

Walmart hourly employees are being rewarded for helping to improve customers’ satisfaction with the discounter’s stores.   The world's largest retailer said Wednesday it awarded more than $200 million in second quarter cash bonuses to more than 900,000 hourly workers across the United States.  

The National Retail Federation filed suit in U.S. District Court on Wednesday on behalf of the millions of employers and employees who it said will be drastically affected if the Labor Department’s changes to the federal overtime rules go into effect on Dec. 1.   Retailers have argued that the new rule will force employers to reduce hours and base pay in order to make up for increased payroll costs.  

While most of the industry is focused on the upcoming holiday season, Party City has bigger fish to fry — hiring for Halloween.   To prepare for the retailer’s make-or-break season, the chain will hire an additional 35,000 employees nationwide over the next four weeks.  

Macy’s is the latest retailer to announce it will hire roughly the same amount of holiday employees as last year.    This holiday season, the department store giant plans to hire approximately 83,000 associates for positions across its Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s stores, call centers, distribution centers and online fulfillment centers nationwide.